Children love to write and express their thoughts, feelings and questions on paper, once they are more fluent in this. One of the most interesting subjects children can write on is either a shared experience with a class, or something which happened directly to them. Therefore in younger children the subject may be 'what you did on the weekend', or 'what we saw when we walked around the oval'. This helps the children to express their own feelings about their experience, and keeps them interested and engaged as it is their choice, and therefore is important to them.
When listening to children read, if they come to a difficult word, the teacher can either: help them sound it out and problem solve, ask them to begin again from the start of the sentence and see if it makes sense, or ask them to skip it, continue reading and then insert the word afterwards. It is important to not simply let a child skip a word without returning to it, however; for having the confidence and ability to at least attempt all words, is a key part of learning to read.
When placing children in groups according to reading level, take special consideration not to cause any children to feel they are in the 'dumb' group, for this will dampen a child's enthusiasm immensely.
One common practice teachers can use is the celebration and share time, implemented after literacy activities. This involves getting the children together, whether at the front of the classroom or in their seats, and asking them to share what they learnt through that particular activity, and how they learnt this. Whether they liked it or not could also be a good question, although not always advisable!
General hints on teaching literacy-reading,
writing and comprehension